He had better be ready for what he either wittingly or foolishly unleashed.

He had better be ready for the fury that he helped create, a fury of his own making, a fury that will burn in a Giants defense that believes it has worked too hard and too well to be disrespected by anyone, especially a player who has yet to feel the pain they inflict.

The Giants defense usually needs nothing more than fresh air to get itself stoked for battle, but that proud unit has plenty more to work with this week as it readies for the arrival Saturday of Taylor and the Jaguars at Giants Stadium. Taylor is a gifted running back and even before Taylor opened up his mouth yesterday, the Giants were geared to stop him. Now they are probably geared to crush him.

“Why would a guy say something like that?” a member of the Giants defense wondered. “That’s not cool.”

There was plenty Taylor said that was un-cool in the minds of a defense that believes it deserves better. As a quick summary, Taylor on a conference call stated his feeling that the Giants, in effect, are doing it with mirrors on defense. He said the Giants blitz so much to make up for a lack of talent, that the Giants have four safeties in their secondary, that they are susceptible to big plays, that the Giants cannot match up with the defenses in Tennessee and Baltimore.

He finished with a vow. “We’ll give you guys a good game, it will be a great game, I can promise you that.”

Now we must not forget that this regular-season finale is of immense importance to the Giants (11-4), who with a victory assure themselves of a bye in the first round and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Giants did not need anything extra to motivate them against the disappointing Jaguars (7-8). Whether they needed it or not, they got something to chew on until kickoff.

“He’s not going to rush for 100 shooting his mouth off,” Keith Hamilton said. “This is bigger than Fred Taylor and his comments. I’m trying to position ourselves to get home-field advantage. I’m not getting caught up in whatever his little lingo is.

“What his little comments are I could care less, about Fred Taylor and what he thinks about our talent level. I’m trying to get the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Do you think I’m worried about what his comments are, how good he thinks we are? He’s the last thing on my mind.”

Taylor had better be able to live up to his words. Perhaps he’s feeling a bit invincible, having rushed for 1,347 yards in only 12 games and, incredibly, having run for more than 100 yards in nine consecutive games. That ties him with Walter Payton for the third longest streak in league history, behind Barry Sanders (14) and Marcus Allen (11). The Giants defense is ranked fourth overall, has given up the fewest points (221) in the NFC, is the league’s second-best run defense (72.4 yards per game) and has allowed one running back all season (Eddie George in Week 5) to rush for more than 100 yards. This always figured to be an enticing confrontation with Taylor. Now it’s personal.

“I don’t know why he said it,” safety Shaun Williams said. “Maybe he looked at the film and that’s what he felt. That’s the best I can do and I got to stop talking before I get in trouble.”

News of the shots Taylor took spread quickly, with help from Jim Fassel, who walked into the locker room and in no uncertain terms forbid his players from verbal retaliation. “He told us not to come back with rebuttals,” center Dusty Zeigler said. “He didn’t want us to create a sideshow.”

Consider the sideshow already created.

Taylor started innocently enough, noting the Giants like to blitz a great deal. “They’ve been successful,” he said, “but if they don’t dial up the right blitz it’s going to hurt them.”

The floodgates were opened:

“They have four safeties back there instead of two corners and two safeties. They cover well but they just attack a whole lot and they are very aggressive, and that can hurt you at times.”

“Their whole defense is aggressive and if they don’t get to the quarterback with the blitz there is going to be big plays all over the field.”

“Tennessee and Baltimore don’t blitz as much. I think they just have better athletes, so they don’t have to blitz as much.”

“I can probably say Tennessee and Baltimore do have more talent [than the Giants] on defense. They’re quicker, a lot quicker.”

“The Giants have a great scheme. Even if you don’t have the talent your scheme can make some players better than they are.”

Fassel, who will probably send Taylor a holiday greeting card thanking him for this ready-made bulletin board material, said, “We’ve got outstanding talent and I wouldn’t trade my guys . . . for anybody. I’ll stand by them and how they play.”

Think the Giants defense is looking forward to this?

“Evidently he must feel pretty good about himself,” Hamilton said, smiling. “In three days, 72 hours, it’s all going to be settled on that field. He’ll show up, we’ll show up and we’ll see what happens.”